Honor Making a Chaplet of Roses

Honor Making a Chaplet of Roses

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The French inscription below Honor may be translated: "I am Honor who makes chaplets for my children who are beautiful." Repairs make it impossible to decipher the other inscriptions with certainty. The young girl is probably saying: "To please my friend better, I shall put on this pretty hat." The inscription above the courtier at the right identifies him as Detuit ("Pleasure"). The gentleman at the left may be saying: "Homage to my good lady, my protectress." Essentially an allegory of courtly love, this fragmentary tapestry hanging was inspired by romances of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Honor Making a Chaplet of RosesHonor Making a Chaplet of RosesHonor Making a Chaplet of RosesHonor Making a Chaplet of RosesHonor Making a Chaplet of Roses

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.